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Friday, May 20, 2005

It starts out with a great headline, and it gets even better.BlueWashington has a great post on how not smart it is for the Washington Democratic Party to go along with the GOPsters to sue to get rid of the Top Two primary:

...Chris and Paul also want candidates to use their parties’ labels only if they win their county conventions. Typically, convention attendees of both parties are more extreme in their positions than average voters and this will make it harder for moderate candidates to win.

...What we don't need in the legislature right now is even more extreme positions from both sides of the spectrum. Requiring party nominations to run will do that.

I can break off and get to my point with this part of what BlueWashington has to say, that the Top Two "diminishes their abilities to control who runs and who wins and they view that as a bad thing." In a way, this is all about control, the ability of the parties to control the political process.

It shouldn't be about the parties controlling any aspect of the political process, it should be about letting the people have control. The parties should be about helping people get involved in the process, instead of trying to become closed organizations that have a leg up on the scene, angling out anyone else.